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From My Wok to Yours - Taking the Mystery Out of Everyday Dining and Meals!!

Tuesday, February 2, 2016

Chinese Food Revisited

Nowadays Chinese food is enjoying a high reputation in the world due to its delicious taste and charming appearance. China is famous for its claim as home to the most popular cuisine in the world. Chinese dishes have developed a wide range of unique local and specialized dishes and local flavor refreshments best suited for the different produce, climate, regions, historical conditions, and food and drink customs also.

In China, food and its preparation has been developed so highly that it has reached the status of an art form. Typically, Chinese people think that delicious and nutritious food is a basic necessity of life. Food in Chinese country is typically seen as consisting of two or more general components: a carbohydrate source or starch accompanying dishes of vegetables, meat, fish, or other items.

In most dishes in Chinese cooking, food is prepared in bite sized pieces, ready for direct picking up and eating. (Think chopsticks and the limitations that come with their use.) Chinese culture considered using knives and forks unsuitable at the table due to fact that these instruments are regarded as weapons.

Chinese people use meats, poultry, fish and vegetables known to the Western palate but also include some exotic ingredients. Because of different weather conditions, environment, tastes and products, there are about 57 regional styles of food in China. There are also a number of methods of cooking such as baking, boiling, braising, deep frying, double boiling, poaching, sautéing, scalding, shallow frying, simmering, smoking, steaming, stir frying, barbecuing and blanching that produce many varieties of mouth watering dishes.

For healthy side dishes, skip the fried egg roll and wontons and instead have a cup of soup. Skip the order of fried rice. It is an unnecessary supply of large amounts of calories. It may also contains high concentrations of cholesterol. If available, brown rice is the most healthful alternative to fried or white rice. If possible, on the day you choose to order Chinese takeout, limit your intake of sodium rich foods. Many Chinese meals are high in sodium content due to the use of soy sauce and other additives. Don’t add any more salt than necessary once your meal arrives! Additionally, if you are ordering a dish with peanuts, eat them in moderation. Peanuts can be very beneficial and contain many good fats and nutrients. However, eating too many can make a somewhat healthy dish unhealthy quite quickly.

Chinese food, when authentic, is probably the healthiest food in the world. Some restaurants, which are not authentic, prepare their menu by frying the food then seasoning with highly saturated fats or with meats that contain unhealthy amounts of animal fat. These Chinese restaurants are not recommended and they are both neither authentic nor healthy.

Good Chinese food however, is prepared and cooked with poly unsaturated oils. Authentic Chinese food does not require the use of milk-fat ingredients such as cream, butter or cheese. Meat is used, but not in abundance, which makes it easy for those who love authentic Chinese food to avoid high levels of animal fat. Many believe that authentic Chinese food is really the ideal diet.